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22 September 2017

Hidden Mountain Soap

At the risk of repeating myself, most of my readers know that I am not a huge fans of soap at all. Despite Lush creating some incredible scents in this format, they just don't get on with my skin. As someone with quite a dry complexion, I have found that most of the company's soaps leave my body feeling parched, and then I need to moisturise heavily afterwards, which brings about problems of its own.

For this reason, I was not particularly enamoured to see so many new variations in this year's seasonal range. As someone who feels the need to try and review every vegan product Lush offer to consumers, I knew that I would need to work my way through every single one of them - which wasn't going to be the best news for my already winter-touched skin.

Hidden Mountain was the first one I reached for - not because I was overly excited with the scent, but because the premise and design grabbed my attention immediately. If there is one (only) thing I love about the cold weather, it's the brisk through the local woodlands, while wrapped in a million layers to keep myself from freezing to death. I am definitely a country person at heart, and the cold weather brings about a romanticism when I think about exploring woods and forests.

This soap immediately offered a rapport that reminded me of both Needles And Pine Shower Jelly and Tramp Shower Gel. In fact, I have heard rumours that the soap is supposed to be a combination of the latter and Grass, and I can definitely relate to that description as well. Either way, this product is definitely one for those who like grassy, earthy smells.

Containing ho wood oil and labdanum resinoid, Hidden Mountain offers a green floral smell with woody undertones that support and pad out of the overall fragrance. Labdanum has a very rich, resinous smell about it and I see this as the dominant note overall. Despite it being low in the mix, the lavender can be detected, and offers a subtle dry, floral component as well.

To me, this soap really is like walking through a forest after it has snowed - the ferns and woodland plants wet and bleeding that earthy, green phosphorus smell into the air; the shrubbery and fallen branches adding a cloudy and quite saturated woody smell. It's definitely not a scent for the faint-hearted, and when you use this you will find the aroma follows you around for hours later.

What I enjoyed about Hidden Mountain was that the inclusion of cocoa butter meant that this soap was a little gentler on my skin. While I would never claim that it was moisturising for me, I did use it for successive weeks as a hand soap, and I never once suffered from dry or damaged skin. In fact, the soap brought about a slight clarity to my hands - meaning that there was almost a radiance to my skin after using it. Furthermore, the scent clung to my skin like an icicle on a tree branch, and I was once complimented on my 'perfume' some three hours later, which was impressive.

For those who appreciate soaps more than I do, and love the fragrance of this one, I should warn you that this shrunk at an alarming rate. After using it around 3-4 times in the shower, the 100g piece I had bought had almost halved in size. For this reason, you need to make sure that it does not come into contact with the running water very often, and that you pat the piece down once you have finished bathing.

Ultimately, this was never going to be a product I would rave about; neither was it ever going to be one that I bought multiple pieces of. However, I did really appreciate the smell of Hidden Mountain and I can see how someone with skin that's a little less drier than mine might benefit from using this.